Trinity Star
by DreamCloud704
Summary: What do you do when your best friend goes missing... Then some other guy shows up saying he's your best friend from two years in the future! Tancred/Emma plus others.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Charlie Bone books they rightfully belong to Jenny Nimmo.

Trinity Star –

Prologue:

2 weeks.

2 weeks have pasted since he went missing.

At first I just thought he had gone on holiday or away for the weekend, money was never a problem in his family, in fact I'd say he was loaded, so it was never a concern. But that idea was blown out of the water when I received a phone call from his father 2 days later on Sunday.

He asked me if I'd seen him at all. Of cause I told him the last time I'd seen him was on Friday, when we were walking home together from school, just like we always did. He carried on going up towards his house, while I went left to mine. He was supposed to come round to mine on the Saturday and then we were going to go down to pet's café to meet up with the others there. But he never showed up, so I rang his mobile and hit his answer phone telling me to leave a message. I never did, that's when I thought he was away for the weekend.

Although apparently he wasn't, that's what Mr. Torsson told me anyway. He told me he had never even come home on the Friday, and Mr. Torsson had thought he was round mine so hadn't bothered phoning him because he usually came round to mine anyway, so he wasn't concerned. He then asked me to tell him if I saw him to ring him and let him know he was okay, I said I would, he thanked me and hung up.

That was around the time I started to panic, he hadn't gone home on Friday, what the hell was he playing at.

I remember when I went to pet's café on my own I told the other that he had probably gone away for the weekend and they laughed and said that was just like him. At the time it had put my mind at rest and I didn't think about it again until I got the phone call from his dad frantic with worry.

And that was when I realised Tancred Torsson had gone _M I S S I N G._


	2. Chapter 1: Falling Star

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Charlie Bone books they belong and were written by Jenny Nimmo.

Falling Star –

Friday thank God it was Friday Lysander thought to himself as he packed his large suitcase. The week had been long and he was ready for it to end so he could go home at last. The rest of the endowed would most definitely agree with him there, they were all still worried about Tancred's disappearing act.

They had all decided to meet up at pets café on Saturday to talk about it properly since they barely had time to discuss it here at Bloor's, what with all the evil endowed poking about. The last thing they needed was them knowing about it although they had begun to wonder where on earth he was after all it had been 2 weeks now.

Lysander sighed and went over to the large wooden wardrobe at the far end of the room and reached up to the top shelf to retrieve the last of his clothes, as he fumbled about his long fingers managed to tug on the end of a huge mound he smiled and yanked them down, bad idea.

The huge pile came flying down, and in surprise Lysander fell to the floor with a loud thump and his clothes landed on top of him. He scowled at them in annoyance, and then noticed the green cape lying on his lap. Standing up he frowned, it wasn't his, his cape was already packed in his suitcase on the bed. He turned it over and found the label poking out at the top; he scanned his hazel eyes over the neatly imprinted handwriting and sighed. Tancred Torsson had been scrawled on in ink on to material.

"Damn" He muttered under his breath.

He mentally promised to go up to Tancred's house on Sunday to give it back to the Torsson's, this would give him an excuse to see hoe they were doing after all. Mrs. Torsson was probably not taking this too well after all she panicked about him all the time even when he would come home with a paper cut she would worry about him. To be honest it was a little mad even Tancred admitted she needed to 'chill' as he put it.

He smiled and fell back on his bed he missed sharing a room with that noisy, stubborn idiot now he was gone it was too quiet, he could even hear the crickets outside it was creepy.

Pushing all thoughts aside, he got to his feet and moved away from his bed and to the door, grabbing his coat of the hook he slung it on and zipped it up, and pulled the hood over his head; after all it was raining outside. He gave a quick glance around the room before making a snatch for his suitcase and closing the door behind him.

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Emma stood waiting patiently in the rain for Lysander to arrive at the green bus stop, she had her long black coat on and the hood was coving her long blonde hair keeping it nice and dry. But as she waited her thoughts kept returning to Tancred, he was till missing, and no one had seen him.

She lowered her head in shame she wished she knew where he was, and then maybe she could bring him back or keep him company wherever he was. A small sigh escaped her, she was being silly, and why on earth would he want you there she asked herself. He could have any girl he wanted there so why would he want you. Another sigh, she hadn't even had a chance to tell him how she felt about him and now maybe she would never get another chance if he didn't show up. Her grip on her luggage tightened.

The world around her seemed to slow and grind to a halt before her very eyes, the rain began to seep though her coat and soak her skin with its almost freezing temperature. This was his type of weather wasn't it? The sort he could create, without even thinking about it he could make the heavens cry, and the winds seam angry and fierce as his own anger bubbled inside of him.

A tap on the shoulder made her snap out of her delusions and whisk her back to reality she whipped round to see Lysander standing behind her; he was already soaked to the skin.

"Emma it's time to go" his voice was strained and was barely a whisper; Emma could only just hear it above the rain and mindless chatter of the other students boarding the buses.

She could only respond with a nod of her head serving as her reply.

When they too had boarded the bus they took their normal seats at the back where Tancred would have usually joined them and fed most of the conversation with complaints about how he didn't deserve to get into trouble for something he'd done. But today was different, today the two sat in a murky silence.

Emma dared a glance in his direction and found him starting intently at something, she followed his chocolate coloured eyes and found what had captured his gaze. On the back of the seat in front of them was 3 names written in her black marker pen which was in the bottom of her bag. Her own was at the top followed by Tancred's and then Lysander's.

She smiled at the memory it had been Tancred's idea to do it obviously. She turned her attention back to Lysander and sighed.

"You know I asked everyone if they would like to come over to the bookshop tonight" she told him.

He glanced at her for a moment before flicking his eyes back to the scenery outside; he knew what was coming next.

"Really?" he answered not wanting to seem rude especially not to Emma she had took his best mates vanishing act the worse and it was a miracle she was talking right now.

Emma smiled briefly and nodded.

"Yeah and I was wondering if you would come too Lysander after all it wouldn't be the same if you weren't there now would it?" She explained rather quickly.

He thought for a moment if he should or not, after all he was planning to stay in, he knew if he went it wouldn't be a problem with his parents as they were going out for the night so it wouldn't make any difference there. He sighed oh well might as well go and do something useful.

"Sure I'd love to come" this way at least someone was happy.

Emma perked up slightly.

"Great, see you at six then?" she asked hopefully.

He gave her his thumbs up in reply and watched as she got off the bus as it was her stop, she waved to him from the outside and he waved back in response slightly confuses at Emma's sudden change in mood. He shrugged it off and waited for his own drop off point.

When it did finally come to his turn to get off he grinned relived he could finally get out of the stuffy overcrowded bus.

He turned ready to walk up the heights on his own when a figure caught his eye he turned again to see Gabriel Silk leaning against a wall behind him. Lysander laughed at this.

"Hey" he greeted, still slightly laughing. "thanks for waiting"

Gabriel only smiled.

"No problem I just got here myself" he told him while picking up his bags off the wet floor. "So have you been invited to Emma's tonight as well?" he asked.

"Yeah, I wasn't sure whether or not to go at first but I figured might as well right everyone else is going, plus Emma said it wouldn't be the same without me there and all" he laughed.

Gabriel laughed with him.

But all of sudden their laughter stopped as they heard a loud crash and a huge golden sphere came roaring past them and crash landed in the woods near Tancred's house. The earth shook as it did this and both boys hit the floor.

They scrambled to their feet and stared at the smoke rising from where the mysterious rock had landed.

"What an earth was that?!" Gabriel shrieked as the two stood completely still shell shocked by the unnatural event that had just occurred before them.

"I don't know but I'm going to find out, you coming?" he asked with a grin on his face.

"Are you kidding me!?" He shot back flinging his arms in the air for emphasis."There's no way I'm going near that thing it could be dangerous or something" he ranted.

"Aww come on Gabe we're talking once in a life time here" Lysander smirked.

"God you sound like Tancred" he fumed walking past him and up the hill towards Tancred's house.

"No Tancred would say that alias were attacking or something"

"Oh just hurry up and lets get this over with already!"

Upon arriving at the scene they saw burning trees all around them, some had been put out by the rain that was still falling from the sky like water from a tap. There was a large crater in the soil and when Lysander peered over the edge he saw a boy lying at its core he had blonde spiky hair and a pale completion he was dressed in black and was well wet, yes very wet.

Lysander stared at him he looked exactly like…

"Tancred!?"

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So i Dont Know Wether To Have An Olivia Fidelio Pairing Or An Olivia Charlie Pairing?

Anyway R&R Please!


	3. Chapter 2: Black Hole

Disclaimer - I Do Not Own Any Of The Charlie Bone Book They Were Written And Are Owned By Jenny Nimmo.

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Chapter 2:

Black Hole –

Lysander skidded down the embankment down to the boy below; he had almost slipped twice due to the rain transforming the mud into a chocolate milk like substance. Giving the boy a quick glance over, he came to the decision that he was not Tancred because of his older appearance, unless Tancred had aged like 2 years in the time space of 2 weeks, which he seriously doubted. And the fact that he had a very strange looking crescent shaped scare on his left hand, Tancred definitely did not have a scare there.

He sighed and knelt down next to the teen who appeared to be asleep, he gave him a gentle shake careful not to move him too much in case he was bleeding somewhere, the guy was freezing! He was like a block of ice, maybe he had sat in a freezer or something?

Just then Gabriel took that moment to peer over the edge cautiously and call down to him in a nervous and slightly over concerned tone.

"Is he alright?" he asked, sounding unsure on whether he should say anything or not.

Lysander darted his eyes up towards Gabriel's worried face he was probably wondering if they would be carrying any dead bodies back with them or not Lysander thought to himself before replying with a nod.

"Yeah I think so, I saw his chest moving don't worry Gabe he's breathing" he added a fake smile for good measure, he wasn't lying about the breathing part though, indeed the boys chest was moving slowly up and then back down again. He turned his attention back to him again and as he did he saw the boys eyes flicker for a moment before they opened and revealed electric blue eyes the colour of the ocean.

Lysander gasped at the sight and slid back a little as the mysterious boy pulled himself up with a pained moan and rubbed his head, before turning to face Lysander who pulled himself together.

"Ermm… are you okay?" was all Lysander could think of to say to him.

The boy rubbed his head again before giving him an answer.

"Yeah I think" he replied as he surveyed his surroundings he blue eyes peering into the almost complete darkness with a frown.

Lysander watched him a puzzled expression clouding his face.

"You don't know where you are do you?" he asked with a smile.

"Well of coarse I do!" he snapped. "I walking up here when I was attacked by what ever it was that fell out of the sky" he told him while looking up at the sky, rain still pouring down on them. "I don't remember what happened after that to be honest" the boy rubbed the back of his head and then looked back at him again. "Who are you by the way?"

Lysander looked shocked for a minute and was temporarily caught of guard by the question.

"Oh I'm Lysander Sage and that up there is Gabriel Silk" he told him and pointed to Gabriel who was still at the top of the crater looking down at the scene below him with curious eyes. "And may we ask who on earth you are?"

The boy smiled back a cocky smile that Tancred often had pulled at Manfred whenever he got into trouble, which was very often the current record for one day was 6; yes Lysander had been keeping score of his friends antics.

"Oh, well, I'm, ermm Ashley… Sinclair? Yes Ashley Sinclair that's me" he said with a brief smile that spelled fake, Lysander seemed to buy it though as did Gabriel they smiled back that was until Lysander's dropped like a ton of bricks.

"Wait, what are you doing sneaking about around here at this time of night?" Lysander asked sternly.

Ashley smiled back at him.

"Oh don't worry I'm not doing anything bad" he said as he got to his feet unsteadily; almost loosing his balance twice.

Lysander watched him with folded arms, throwing a very untrusting look his way as the he stumbled to his feet, there was no way he was buying that. Gabriel on the other hand glided down the slope to help Ashley steady himself, giving him a shoulder to lean on while he gathered himself together, and hovered close to him as Ashley smiled and indicated to him that he was fine to have a go on his own at walking.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Gabriel asked him uncertainly.

Ashley smiled back in response to him and staggered back a little.

"Yes I'm sure, don't you worry, anyway thank you for all your help back there but I have to be on my way, don't want the folks back home to worry now do I?" he laughed nervously then waved and disappeared into the night.

Gabriel frowned and then turned back to Lysander who was a behind him, he too looked a little confused by Ashley's sudden disappearance. They shrugged it off and then turned to leave themselves.

They made their way back to their own homes to drop their things back and to get ready for Emma's little get-to-gether at the bookshop.

As soon as they arrived they noticed that all the others were already there bright and early.

Olivia came swiftly over from talking to Emma to greet them with a harsh welcome.

"And what time do you call this?!" she cried sharply. "Your twenty minutes late! We were about to call the police do you realise how worried you had us!"

Lysander rolled his eyes at her over dramatised yet very motherly welcome and waved to Emma.

"Sorry we're late Em!" he called over to her. "And Olivia stop being dramatic, we were on our way but we ran into a little spot of trouble on the way"

Olivia frowned, and leaned a little closer to them.

"What _kind_ of trouble?" she asked curiously.

By then the others had all come over to find out what was going on, after all they had nothing better to do except to talk about how quiet Bloor's had been lately, but that wasn't anything to boast about, even so they had heard most of Lysander conversation thanks to Olivia because of how loud she was.

"Well…" Gabriel started. "You probably wouldn't believe us if we told you"

"Try us" Charlie said smugly.

So Lysander took over explaining everything leaving nothing out, he would sometimes have to go over some parts for Olivia's sake, but the others seemed to follow the story and listened intently as Lysander recounted their run in with the rock that had fallen from the sky and strangely vanished into thin air and the unknown boy named Ashley Sinclair, who had an astonishing likeness to Tancred.

"Oh my gosh!" Olivia wailed. "Really?! He looked just like him?"

Lysander nodded glumly and stared at the floor.

"So where did he go? I mean he couldn't have just vanished" Charlie said with a sceptical look spreading onto his face like ink across a blank page.

"No idea, and trust me he did just vanish, it was really weird" Gabriel answered. "And the strange thing was he could barely walk when he left, but when we followed him to leave there was no trace that he had even been there, we didn't see him hobbling down the road or anything"

Emma suddenly looked thoughtful and then jumped to her feet from the sofa she had been sitting on and came over to join the conversation.

"Well what if he is Tancred?" she asked rather bluntly.

The rest of the group fell into a stony silence and for a while it seemed no one dared to break it, that or no one had any opinion on the subject, this was the general idea until Fidelio began trying to scrub out Emma's sudden suggestion.

Getting up from where he had been quite comfortably listening to the others talk, he came over and stood beside Charlie ready to shed light upon things.

"Well from the way Lysander described Ashley it doesn't seem likely that he is, I mean Lysander said so himself the boy appeared older than Tancred and remember the scar in his hand, Tancred did not have a scar last time I checked" he explained.

All of a sudden there was a crash from outside the bookstore, and all the children went rushing to the door and fled out on to the street to find a raging inferno blazing from a shop down the road. The nice little china shop that sold all sorts of tea pots and statues; Emma had even got her aunt a lovely floral little dancing figurine from there for her last birthday.

"Oh my God" Emma breathed, while staring at the shop as it was engulfed by the flames.

Olivia then screamed, this attracted Fidelio's attention and he turned to ask what was wrong. To his response she pointed up to where a huge dark shadow like creature that was standing tall.

This creature was taller than the blazing building about twice as high, it had huge red eyes which were currently silted as it stared at the building that it had most likely set alight. It had huge black spikes emerging from its back and deathly sharp white teeth, two of which hung from its mouth hungrily, sharp claws ready to plough into the small shop were hanging by its side, and it large head was hunched forward ready for the attack.

Just as the children were talking in the terrifying sight before them a silver Volvo came spinning round the corner at an exceedingly fast rate nearly knocking them over twice as it spun round at an awkward angle blocking the road as it parked sideways. The driver's seat door opened and two black booted feet clunked on to the pavement. A tall figure emerged and pulled a pair of black shades from his head and shoved them deep into his pockets before slamming the door behind him.

"Who on earth is that?" Charlie breathed.

"Not more trouble I hope" Fidelio said. "I mean we've got enough of that haven't we?" he prayed as he gawped back up at the giant.

"Wait! Hang on isn't that…" Gabriel started.

"Ashley!" Lysander shrieked while pointing in his direction.

"No way!" Olivia said in complete disbelief as she squinted at him. "Well I can see what you meant about them looking the same" she mumbled.

Ashley drew a pair of black fingerless gloves from his jacket and pulled them on dragging his slim fingers though.

"Well, well, well" he said while straitening his jacket out. "I didn't expect to see another one of you about; I thought I got rid of you all, to be honest i didn't expect you to follow me though in the first place" he said as though he was talking to the beast in front of him.

Lysander frowned at Ashley, this look suddenly transformed into a harsh glare which Charlie saw from the corner of his eye.

"What's wrong?" he asked cautiously, in case Lysander lashed out, he could already see the ghostly figures of his ancestors floating about him warily ready to fight if Lysander needed them.

Lysander wheeled round to face him.

"He must have called that thing here to cause mayhem! I knew he wasn't to be trusted the fist time I saw him, something about him wasn't right! I mean look at him he's talking to it and everything, he must be endowed like me and have the power to summon up sprites I sensed something when i first saw him… some strange power" he fumed angrily.

Charlie backed up a little, Lysander wasn't normally this feisty and ready to point the finger almost immediately until he knew exactly what was going on, that was usually Tancred's way of doing things not Lysander's.

"We don't know that yet he could be here to stop…" he didn't finish his sentence as Lysander had already took off running straight towards Ashley who had just pulled out two silver guns from his belt.

"What's he doing?!" Emma yelled to Charlie as one of the windows of the shop smashed, fire now framing where the frosted glass had once been, licking at the wooden frame around it.

"He thinks that Ashley summoned that… thing" Charlie replied while pointing at Ashley and then the black shadow monster.

"But that's crazy why would he do that?" Gabriel yelled as the shop began to collapse and the fire spread to another shop down the road.

Olivia edged closer to the group in fear, what an earth was going on, she turned to look at Lysander as he stormed up to Ashley, was it really Tancred? Was Emma right? She stared at him closer as she felt a strong breeze whirl around her ankles. Could it be?

Lysander began to speed up as he approached him, what did he think he was doing waltzing in like this and bringing that thing with him, and then setting fire to everything? It wasn't on.

"Oi! What the hell do you think your doing?" he yelled over to him.

Ashley turned round to face him and smiled smugly.

"Look mate i think you should stay out of this, don't want you getting hurt now do we?" he told him in a reasonable tone.

"I'm no mate of yours" he told him firmly as he went to punch him.

He landed the punch right in the mouth. Ashley fell to the ground with a small thump the two guns he had been holding fell to floor next to him. He pulled himself up one hand out behind him while the other went to his lip where a thin line of blood was running down his chin. He went to get up but was stopped as a sword was shoved in front of face, a circle of ghostly figures surrounded him menacingly staring right at him weapons at the ready, waiting for Lysander to give the signal.

"Not so cleaver now are we?" Lysander asked mockingly. "Okay get rid of him" he said to his ghostly army.

"Sander!" Ashley yelled.

Lysander's eyes went wide as he stared at him.

The boy in front of him suddenly looked weak and completely defenceless, as though he could drop at any minute; his hand that was outstretched behind him was shaking like a leaf. He was slightly hunched over and his eyes looked strained and tired.

"W-what did you call me?" he asked in utter disbelief, he lowered his hand and called off the attack.

The boy took a deep breath.

"Sander" he repeated then gave a small weak laugh. "It was what I always called you"

Blue eyes meet Hazel and Lysander then realised something he hadn't seen before, they were the same, Tancred and Ashley they had to be, there were too many similarities between them.

"Tancred?" he breathed still slightly uncertain.

Ashley gave a weak nod.

"I'm sorry… I didn't tell you… the first time, I couldn't…" he told him, he then tried getting to his feet but failed miserably and fell down again.

Lysander rushed to his side to help his now found friend.

"Don't move! I'll help you up, okay? Just don't move you'll go and hurt yourself, geez the things I do for you"

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Well I myself don't really rate this chapter but it had to be put in for the next chapter tomake any sence.... so pleae R&R and tellme what you think...

Also i really need help on decideding weather OliviaxFidelio or OliviaxCharlie pairing sounds better.


	4. Chapter 3: The Dark Side Of The Moon

Okay well heres the next chapter of the story sorry it took so long, i've been REALLY busy with maths test's I'm sure my maths teacher hates me, plus maths is my worst subject.

i have decided to do an OliviaxFidelo pairing!

Disclaimer - I Do Not Own Any Of The Charlie Bone Book They Were Written And Are Owned By Jenny Nimmo.

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Chapter Three –

The Dark Side Of The Moon:

Lysander sighed as he began to drag the teen with him over to the others, Tancred's head looked behind them and he groaned.

"What's wrong?" Lysander asked as he too glanced behind them.

"You do realise I have to go stop that thing before it completely destroys…" his voice was cut off as he saw the huge black creature vanish into what seemed to be a portal of some sort. "Never mind" he told Lysander wearily.

"Where did it go?" the African asked a small amount of fear leaked into his voice.

"Don't worry about it, I'll tell you later, oh damn I didn't lock my car!" he cursed under his breath as he dragged his feet.

"I didn't know you could drive" Lysander laughed.

"Oh yeah I passed a while back" Tancred answered with a fait smile. "By the way you don't have to drag me I must be heavy and that"

"You know your still as light as a feather surprisingly so don't worry, I bet I could carry you properly, but some how I don't think you would let me"

Tancred chuckled and then flipped his head back.

"Some how I don't think so either" he smiled as a think blonde spike of hair flopped in front of his eyes hiding his expression.

The others ran over to them as the drew closer, and Gabriel grabbed Tancred's other arm and helped carry him into the bookstore as a fire engine pulled up to extinguish the fire that was still raging outside. Just as Lysander and Gabriel were about to take him in, Tancred stopped them and pulled away from their support.

"I made this mess I think its only right I help clean up" he murmured the others still heard him though and were about to pull him back when Tancred firmly told them he could handle it.

The wind picked up instantly and clouds began to cover the sky in a thick inky black layer like leaves on a tree. Tancred stared up at the sky and his eyes glowed blue for a second before the heavens opened and rain poured down onto the ground hitting it with force, thunder boomed above them and cracked with the intensity of a tidal wave crashing against the shore. It sure did soak them like a wave and in mere seconds they were all drenched to the skin and diving inside for cover.

Lysander grabbed Tancred and followed suit by dashing inside to avoid the rain. But the rain sure did its job and the fire was put out quickly, it was a shame that the poor little old lady was never found alive, she had perished in the flames and had never had a chance to get out.

Back inside everyone was grabbing towels and drying off in front of Emma's fireplace. Emma had gone into the kitchen to make some hot chocolate for her dripping wet guests who were currently prodding Tancred with a lot of questions about who the heck he was and how the heck had he grown so much in what 2 almost 3 weeks.

"But is it really possible to grow that tall in such a small amount of time" Fidelio asked for the 11th time.

Tancred grimaced at the question and sighed as he flopped into a chair exhausted.

"It's very complicated to explain" he told him while rubbing his forehead. In truth he was so tired he could have quite happily fallen asleep there and then but they had helped him out so he felt it better he stay awake, plus Emma was there so he wouldn't fall asleep anyway.

Olivia scowled at him and folded her arms tightly and stood right in front of him and stared.

"Well you have to tell us something we've been going out of minds about you and I'm not being over dramatic this time!" she told him firmly. She pointed her finger at him, eyes still demanding.

He smiled at her, rested his chin on his hand, and pulled his smile into a sly smirk.

"Okay then, you want to know what happened do you?"

She nodded, unsure for a moment at his sudden change of heart, but she nodded all the same as her curiosity got the better of her.

Tancred sighed and crossed his leg over the other and straightened himself up, his electric blue eyes closed for a moment as he thought about where to begin.

"Well…" he began his eyes flashing open, as a lightning bolt zipped across the window a growl of thunder accompanying it a moment later. "I guess I should start at the beginning shouldn't i?"

The others nodded as Emma walked in with a silver tray clutched in her hands; the tray was holding the mugs of hot chocolate a small puff of stream blowing off each one. Tancred saw her struggling with the heavy load and stared intently at the tray, a light breeze picked up and swirled around the room until it manifested underneath the tray and lifted it from her grasp, it then began to float steadily away and over to the small ebony coloured table and where it was set down before the wind dispersed.

Emma glanced over to where Tancred was sitting and smiled to thank him he smiled back and then brought up the wind again and the mugs were shared out between the 7 of them.

"Wow this beats doing it yourself" Gabriel mumbled and took a sip of his of his drink before placing it down on the floor. "So you were about to tell us what happened" he said to Tancred.

"Yeah how on earth did you like… grow?" Olivia asked.

"Like I said it's very… complicated so you'll have to listen" he glanced at Olivia before continuing. "And keep up" to this Olivia stuck her tongue out at him.

Everyone hushed themselves into silence and waited for him to start.

"This mess all began when I turned 17, I was out celebrating with some mates from the football team, I had already met up with you guys and we had already had a small bash back at my place, anyway Lysander had come with me to the after celebration as well. We were on our way back home and it was unsurprisingly very early in morning when we started heading back, we decided to take a short cut down an alley to get back a little faster. We were about half way down when I heard something behind us growl, acting on instinct I turned round to see if anything was there, but I couldn't see a damn thing so I carried on walking, but It sounded a second time and this time i knew something was there. So I turned round again and I clearly saw a man dressed in black just standing there very causally I might add. For a minute we both just stared at him and waited to see if he was going to do anything, but he didn't so I very bluntly asked him who he was and I didn't receive any reply so I asked again and this time he had the curtsey to answer saying that he was someone from the dark. Then he came rushing at us at a horrific speed almost inhuman, we ran but he ran faster and he managed to grab the hem of my sleeve and pull he back…" Tancred stopped there and closed his eyes again pressing the tips of his fingers together calmly.

Emma watched him for a moment, she was horrified already and really didn't want to know what had happened next but she was curious now and deep inside wanting to know what had really happened that night.

"But I don't understand I haven't even turned 17 yet how is that even possible?" Lysander asked puzzled and completely lost.

Tancred laughed and opened his eyes again to explain.

"Yes I realise that but didn't I say that it was complicated just listen ask questions later" he said a smile on his pale face.

"Okay then, well continue" Charlie half ordered he wasn't really convinced but he knew that the others were eager to know if he was or not and he appeared to know a fair bit about them.

Tancred nodded and gave him a two fingered salute.

"Carrying on" he said. "He had grabbed me back by my sleeve and I recall him biting me on my left hand" he told them as he gave a look of disgust at the memory and glanced down to the moon shaped scar on his hand.

Olivia and Emma gasped in horror and Olivia squirmed back a little on the sofa.

"All I remember after that is everything going black and waking up in hospital. My father was there and he told me there was no blood left in my body, at first I laughed at him and asked him to stop mucking about, I refused to believe him, then I later found out that the had been deadly serious when the doctor told me the same thing. The doctor also said I had just fallen unconscious and fallen back and scarped my hand when I fell, of course I didn't believe that no way. I know what really happened" he said while scowling at the floor.

Lysander looked at his best mate with a look of sympathy as the boy chewed his lip.

Fidelio suddenly frowned.

"But if you had no blood in your body how in the world did you survive?" he asked sceptically.

Tancred laughed as though he was an idiot.

"I'm getting to that bit" he smirked.

"Oh my god!" Olivia squealed loudly. "Did you have some kind of blood sucking leachy disease or something?"

Everyone turned to look at her like her over dyed purple hair was on fire, she had jumped to her feet and was looking at Tancred in horror then realising she was being stared at like she just slapped the president of the United States of America she sat down again and looked at the floor.

"I'll be quiet now" she said quietly.

"Uh huh you do that" Emma said she then looked at Tancred again. "Please continue" she told him with a smile.

"Thank you" he told her glancing at Olivia again he re-continued his gloomy tale. "So we left the hospital after having to pay off the doctor so he wouldn't have me sent to be probed to find out how I was still alive" he grinned. "We went home and I began getting really tired during the day and then not sleeping at night sometimes I fainted out in the hallway and in class randomly and then i went off food" he said rubbing the back off his head.

Everyone gaped at him if there was one thing Tancred Torsson could do very well it was eat, he absolutely loved food.

"No way" Lysander said. "You're kidding me right? You go off food that's like saying Olivia can't act"

"Don't get me wrong it's not like i couldn't eat I just didn't feel the need to anymore I could suddenly go days without eating and never feel hungry at all" he explained.

"That's incredible" Charlie said. "How on earth could you have done that?" he asked astonished.

Tancred grinned.

"Charlie my friend you are about to find out" he said with a wicked grin on his face. "I then had a strange visit from my friend from the alley" he paused as though thinking though what to say next.

"Why would he comeback?" Fidelio asked. "I mean he almost killed you"

"He came back to finish the job well that's what he told me anyway" Tancred explained as he put his arms behind his back and rested back. "He then said that he had turned me into a vampire by mistake" he laughed."I was like yeah sure you did dude now can you get the heck out of my room before I call the cops" another laugh.

"A vampire?!" Charlie yelled.

Olivia laughed and clutched her stomach.

"Wow what an idiot vampires don't exist!" she laughed wiping a tear from her eye.

Everyone turned back to Tancred and were shocked to see he hadn't even cracked a smile.

Olivia then gave a nervous giggle and looked at him with worried eyes.

"T-they aren't real are they?" she gulped.

Tancred sighed he had seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. He got to feet and smiled.

"Stay still" he commanded.

"Wh…" she didn't get far in an almost blur Tancred has swiftly moved across the room and was standing right behind Olivia smug smile on his face.

"Wha… How the… You were just over there and… I don't get it?" she said pulling a face.

Lysander looked blank, Emma was well shocked, Fidelio looked like his was _trying_ to figure out what has just happened Gabriel looked as though he was doing the same and well Charlie was scared?

It's called speed moving" Tancred told them while moving back to the comfort of his chair. "My alley friend taught me everything I know about the super natural" he smiled.

A look of realisation gleamed on to Olivia face in a flash, her features widened.

"So you are a…" she spluttered.

Tancred nodded.

"A vampire" he stated simply as though it didn't really faze him at all in fact he had a rather pleased look about him as though he enjoyed the fact that he was indeed a bloodsucker monster as some would put it.

She backed off sharply and Tancred groaned before putting a hand to his head and shaking it slowly.

"I don't drink human blood I'm a vegetarian"

Lysander frowned as did they all.

"How do you get a vegetarian vampire?" Emma asked.

"I only drink animal blood, inside joke" he laughed.

"Oh that's really puts my mind at rest!" Olivia wailed.

"Stop being dramatic" Tancred said. "I'm not going bite you to death honestly Olivia you're a B negative not my type" he said disgustedly.

"Hey!" she yelled back. "Wait, how did you know?"

Tancred rolled his eyes.

"Vampires, in legends, are said to have heightened senses so in other word Tancred can smell your blood in the air" Gabriel explained to her.

Tancred nodded at this with folded arms.

Olivia gaped at him and groaned.

"Oh no" she complained.

"Oh yes!" Tancred counted.

"What else did Mr. Dark and Creepy teach you?" Charlie asked.

"Hmm well how to hunt, feeding, how to fight properly and speed moving, everything a vampire would need to know really, he became like a brother I guess looking out for me and such he told me he just felt guilty for turning me into what he was but hey I was okay with it I guess" he murmured.

Then all of a sudden a small voice cut in on the conversation, and a pixie like creature appeared on Tancred's shoulder.

"Where have you been?" it wailed. "I've been looking everywhere for you" she fumed at him.

"Taylor, really you have the worst timing you know" he told her boredly.

Taylor as Tancred had called her had long hip length hair which was tied back with a golden ribbon; she had two fluffy fox like ears protruding from her head with a tail to match. She was wearing an orange long sleeved top which had a butterscotch yellow butterfly in the corner and a pair of yellow trousers and sandals on her feet which each had a purple flower on them.

The first thing Olivia did was sequel with excitement she came rushing over and stared at poor Taylor with wide eyes which were gleaming with joy.

"Wow she's so cute!" she then picked up and dumped her in her hands and beamed.

"What… is she?" Gabriel asked with a confused look masking his face.

Tancred sat watching Olivia stroking a miffed Taylor for a moment before answer him.

"She my sprite guardian" he told him. "She basically just watches over me and helps me when I need it, Carlick the guy from the alley had one too, there like a regular person infused with an animal so like half and half I guess" he laughed. "As you can see Taylor has half fox DNA, I have two others Raven and Corbin, although I have no idea where they are at the minuet" he glanced over o Taylor again to ask her. "Hey Taylor where's Raven and Corbin?"

She wriggled free from Olivia and floated over and perched on Tancred's shoulder again.

"Ravens surfing the city for shadow beasts and Corbin… I don't know he's somewhere properly looking for a snack for you, all I know is he isn't happy with you for being so careless again, why cant you be careful with how you go and attack, I mean you just knew that it was a bad idea to go visit Professor Creepy but no you just had to go and check didn't you, even though he's after you, and you know that!" she ranted all the while pointing her finger at him accusingly.

Everything fell silent and no one spoke not even Taylor seemed able to break the lingering awkwardness that was captivating the group. All eyes were focused on Tancred; he didn't seem to mind this and was quiet happily sitting stone still listening to he cinders in the fire crackle and burn. The clock on the mantle chimed 9' o clock, the echo that the clock had emanated rang though the bookshop and their ears. Fidelio was the first to move he stood up and turned to Emma.

"Well, as much fun as this has been I think it would be best we discussed this matter tomorrow at the café don't you? I mean we'll have more time to sort this out won't we?" he suggested.

A round of nodding heads finalized the event and Charlie made his move to leave along with a reluctant Lysander and Gabriel.

"You will tell us though wont you?" Lysander asked Tancred firmly or rather demanded.

"About what?" Tancred asked him calmly his eyes meeting his in a clash of hazel and electric blue.

"About what happened, why you're here and what exactly happened to you, I mean there must be more to it then that right?"

A thoughtful look passed over him and he smiled.

"You have no idea" was his reply; Lysander seemed satisfied with this and made his way to leave with the others.

"Wait!" Emma cried. The boys turned back to her.

"What is it Emma?" Charlie asked her.

Emma looked nervous and fiddled with her fingers while glancing at the ground.

"Well where is he going to stay?" she asked her cheeks filling with red.

Tancred looked at her his eyebrows arched, there was no way he was moving he was too injured plus he had already made up his mind that he was staying here with Emma, and there was no way anyone was going to convince him otherwise.

"Well I was under the impression that I was staying here with you" he told them all casually as the flicked a small ball of electricity from one hand to another.

Emma stared at him in pure horror. He, was, staying, here?! With her alone, well with her aunt too, but all the same with her, did that mean he was in her room too! No way, how on earth had she got so lucky? Wait, she thought as she shook her head, her aunt was here too, if she got caught with a boy here alone her own her aunt would immediately assume the worst and throw him out and in his current state that didn't seem like the best idea.

Lysander saw Emma was day dreaming again and smiled at Tancred, he would get his way anyway so there was no point in trying to argue with him.

"Well if that's okay with you Emma?" he said to her snapping her from her train of thought.

She turned to Tancred and watched him for a minuet.

"Well I guess so; I mean I'm sure I can hide him from my aunt and how hard can looking after a vampire be right?" she smiled.

"You probably have no idea" Olivia said darkly as she slipped out of the door, closely followed by Fidelio who gave her a goodnight and quick thank you.

Lysander then grinned and thanked her for letting them over before sharply existing Charlie and Gabriel followed suit and soon it was only Emma and Tancred left.

"Well that was amusing" Tancred murmured.

Emma turned to him and glared daggers at him.

"Well make yourself at home why don't you, you already invited yourself to sleepover didn't you?" she yelled at him.

Tancred remained silent watching her as she paced about in frustration.

"Have I caused you bother?" he asked her politely while fixing his ultramarine eyes on her.

"No! No, it's not that, hmm well we'll have to get you upstairs, can you walk?" she rushed as she made her way over to him.

"I think so, I mean I did it earlier when I used speed movement right?" he laughed getting to his feet and walking slowly over to the stairs.

Emma walked behind him shadowing his movements ready in case he collapsed, she prayed her auntie was sleeping, oh god if she caught her with him there would be hell to pay.

"You must be hungry right?" she questioned trying to start a conversation with him.

"Nah, I'll hunt tomorrow with Raven like Taylor said he's probably found some good hunting ground for me he's good at that" he explained to her glancing at her to make sure was okay with all of this he had picked up on her heart beating unusually fast when they had been downstairs.

"So what animal is Raven then?" Emma dared to ask as they reached her bedroom.

"He's part cat" Tancred informed her as he walked into her room without hesitation.

Emma cringed as he made his way in, what would he think, her room was quiet girly in her eyes what with the pink walls and laminate flooring, shelves piled with stuffed animals and sketch books littering the floor, pictures of birds pasted on the walls and on the floor as well. Her poor bed in the corner was littered with fluffy pillows that Tancred was more than happy to drop onto. He had made himself very combatable there and in a matter of seconds he was asleep Emma was sure of it.

She marched over and began to shake him roughly, there was no way he was getting the beg, not her bed anyway.

"Oi!" she yelled at him. "Get up you've caused enough trouble already so there's no way you can have my bed too!" she wailed.

Tancred sighed at her childishness and frowned.

"Well why can't we share?" he reasoned. "Cause there's no way I'm moving now, your beds to soft and it smells so good too" he smiled while getting even more comfy than before.

Emma's mouth twitched and she stared at him in horror, share a bed with Tancred Torsson?

"W-what!?" she squeaked.

"What? What's wrong with that?" and then it came to him, the reason she was so against the idea. "Oh come on it's not like I'm going to rape you, you can trust me there, vampires honour if I do I have to burn myself to death or at least that's what the elders say" he told her truthfully.

She edged to her bight clothes and smiled a shaky smile.

"Yeah, okay then if you're sure" she said wearily as she walked over to the family bathroom to change.

"Yes I'm sure Emma I would never dream of doing anything like that"

She was back in no time and found Tancred had fallen asleep peacefully on her bed, a grin made it's way to her face as she leapt on to her bed and pulled the blanket over her too, she realised Tancred was still dressed in his clothes and sighed.

Just as she was about to fall to sleep Tancred shifted next to her and wrapped one arm around her and pulled her close to him.

Emma nearly died of shock there and then, this could not be happening to her.

"Emma…" his velvet voice came.

Her insides melted and she fell to sleep very happy indeed…

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Well I actully liked the way this ended anyway please R&R and tell me what you think about it, please?


	5. Chapter 5: Jupiter's Fire

Well I'm back after much thought and more planning i realised that i had to finish this, not only that i realised that i had received more reviews and a flame, my first ever one! So I guess that's an achievement in it's own right :D.

So here to that. I would also like to thank those who reviewed, thanks to you i managed to drag my lazy self to my laptop and continue this.

Disclaimer - I do not own Charlie Bone, if I did Tancred and Emma would have been together from the start, no it belongs to Jenny Nimmo.

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Chapter 4 -

Jupiter's Fire:

A bright light woke Emma the next day, not she had slept much anyway thanks to a certain someone, and rolled over to face him and to her shock she found that that certain someone wasn't there.

Now two things ran though her mind at that moment. First was the fact that Tancred would be wandering around the house unsupervised this was bad because her auntie may or may not be awake and, if she caught him heads would roll. Emma somehow thought that she would not be amused by that.

Secondly, she noted that it was twelve midday, this no doubt meant that she would not only be late for the meeting with her friends that had started 10 minutes ago but, she also would have missed breakfast which would have been homemade pancakes with chocolate sauce.

Dashing from her bed she ran across the hall to the bathroom to shower and to get changed once she had done this she dashed back to her room to find Tancred lying on her bed only half dressed he was lacking his shirt that was hung on the back of the door.

"Phew, it's hot today don't you think?" he asked in his ever so casual tone.

Emma once again found herself glaring daggers at him, how on earth could he be so fine with this!

Taylor took this opportunity to pop up out of nowhere and leap onto Tancred's knee and smile at Emma sweetly.

"Emma" she started, and from the way she had said this she clearly wanted something.

"Yes, Taylor" Emma growled though gritted teeth, after all it wasn't Taylor's fault her master was such an annoyance.

"Do you happen to have a fan or something cause Tancred's right it _so_ hot!" she whined.

Emma sighed to herself and smiled back at her.

"There's one on my desk over there" she told her pointing at the small miniature fan that was neatly sitting on a pile of books.

Taylor cheered and danced over to it switching it on and kneeling in front of it merrily.

Emma looked back to Tancred who was once again staring into space.

"So what are you going to do with yourself today?" she asked.

He turned to face her and smiled.

"Well I've already been out hunting and well I'm full so, I guess I'll follow you around for a while and go to the café and explain why I'm here to the others" he smirked. "I could drive you there if you like?"

Emma's jaw dropped, he was going to be with her all day.

"Wait, you can drive?" she said in astonishment.

"Well yeah, my mum and dad paid for me to be taught when I hit 16, private of coarse, after all you can't drive till your 17 right?" he told her as they walked out the door.

"Wait!" Emma hissed. "What if my aunt catches you?"

Tancred sniffed the air once and looked back at her with a grin.

"Don't worry she's still sleeping, she should be there for about…Oh I don't know I guess from the slowness of her pulse I'd say about another couple of hours, unless she's woken up or something" he predicted with another sly smile.

"How the hell can you tell?" Emma asked completely amazed.

"Heightened senses" he shrugged lazily.

Now that Emma was paying attention, she noted Tancred's eyes were cloudy and had a very sleepy look to them, he seemed only half awake and was moving slowly, almost cautiously as they stepped outside the house and into the cool air. He steppedsluggishly over to his sleek silver car, which was still parked askew in the middle of the road; it was amazing that it hadn't been towed away yet.

Emma felt a pang of worry stab at her and she instantly fixed her eyes onto him.

"You know maybe you should stay at home, after all you don't look so good and you're half asleep still" she said.

His head snapped up and his hazy eyes found hers and he remained fixed in place for a second as though he was still trying to figure out what she had just said.

"Emma I'm fine, really" he at last said. "You don't have to worry it's just the sun it sort of drains vampires we don't you know turn to ash we just move and think slower, and then at night we're back to our normal almost super human state" he grinned even though it was only half a grin Emma accepted it and mentally reminded herself to keep an eye out for him.

They were soon speeding along the road, far too fast Emma noted, he was driving at around 70mph even though it was a 10mph maximum limit. Emma was still amazed she was still in one piece by the time they had arrived. She had clearly seen Lysander at the window of the café his jaw had hit the floor when he saw her in the car as it zipped past at an alarming speed, and she knew that she would be in for it when they walked in at last.

Tancred had parked up on the curb right outside the store and when Emma had frowned at Tancred he had just said that he wanted to be able to see his baby from the window to make sure she wasn't stolen or anything, to this Emma rolled her eyes and walked off in the direction of the café.

Norton raised his hand as she was about to enter, his stern voice ringing out to her in a gruff tone.

"And where's your pet Emma?" he asked her.

She stood there dumbfounded for a moment before realising she had left Nancy, her beloved pet duck, at home!

"Oh no!" she moaned as Tancred appeared at her side smiling.

That was when Gabriel appeared at the door grinning from ear to ear waving his hands in the air.

"It's okay Norton, their pets are in here!" he called clearly proud of himself for helping them out.

Norton raised a bushy eyebrow at him and frowned.

"Very well then, please go in" he told then opening the door just wide enough to let them in.

To this Tancred grinned and darted inside quickly and stared hungrily at the cake deli, his hands pushed against the glass, eyes goggling at the range of sugar dipped treats lined up neatly in rows. His eyes the fell as did his shoulders a grim sigh escaping his lungs sadly.

"If only" he muttered darkly, hands swiftly dug into his pockets balling into tight fists, scowl now planted onto his lush features as he stormed over to the table.

Emma, who had watched the whole scene with a small smile followed in tow after ordering herself a lemonade, Tancred's old favourite, and a orange juice for herself. After doing this she moved over to the crowed table and sat down next to a PMSing Tancred.

"Here" she said passing him the lemonade, to which he frowned. "At least _try_ to act normal will you?" she sighed.

Tancred responded by murmuring something about him hating that she knew his favourite drink, to this she laughed and took a sip of her own drink.

Charlie then straightened up in his seat and decided to take control of the unofficial meeting.

"So... Back to last night then, you never did tell us the whole story did you?" he started cautiously, wondering whether that had sounded right, well it sounded sort of boss like to him, the thought made him smile with pride.

The others watched Tancred again, last night's atmosphere creeping up on them again taking over within seconds. Tancred however seemed unaffected by this and carried on slurping away at his drink.

When he felt he had finished he gave a thoughtful look and glanced at Fidelio, who no doubt had analyzed the conversation last night.

"Urm, sure... Where did I get too?" he asked blankly.

Olivia snorted dramatically, which pretty much summed her whole life up... Dramatic.

Fidelio smiled smugly, happy to be recognized for his sheer brilliance, well what he believed to be brilliance.

"I believe you got to the part where you were telling us about your friend, and how he taught you about vampires; then Taylor came out of nowhere and said something about some crazy professor and you causing trouble" he stated frowning at the last parts as though trying to piece it all together as though it were a puzzle.

"Hmm, yeah I thinks that's right" Lysander said smiling turning to Tancred who now had his arms down on the table his head lying on them sleepily.

"Urmm" he agreed yawning, dragging himself up again with a sigh and looking thoughtful once more. "Well... after that Carlick..."

"Mr. Dark and Creepy" Olivia said folding her arms defensively, eyes narrow and cold.

Tancred laughed swirling his cup around in his hands absentmindedly.

"Right, him, anyway after he taught he how to look after myself I went away for a while, to clear my head and such, that's when I met _him_" Tancred's head fell downward, glaring at the now crushed glass cup still gripped between his hands that were shaking with what appeared to be anger. Small shards of the glass sliced into his pale skin like miniature transparent knives, liquid flowing like red wine down his hands and onto the table making small pools.

Olivia squirmed again in her seat she didn't like blood and being the dramatic she was she kind of over did it with a small squeal of terror. Lysander, however watched him, positive that Tancred had no idea that he had even broken the glass in the first place that, or he was trying not to.

But in the end it was Gabriel that brought him back to reality, with a concerned call of his name his head snapped up, eyes blinking down at his hands, a mild curse leaving his mouth, and an intense stare at the mess before him, the cuts on his hands healed sharpish as though afraid of Tancred's extreme version of the evils.

Once they had gone Tancred sighed and gratefully took Fidelio's napkin and began to mop up the remaining blood.

"So... You met _him_..." Charlie said dragging the _his_ out, trying to press Tancred further into telling them, this seemed to work and Tancred continued.

"Yeah, him, his name was Professor Elter Sanders and he was a teacher at some prestigious academy over in London which was where I was at the time, anyway it turned out he knew Carlick, but at the time I didn't know this and he caught me out hunting" Tancred said his voice monotone.

"But after he caught me he began to pursuit me, and when I spoke with Carlick I found out that he was obsessed with capturing a vampire and getting his hands on their blood cause he had this wappy idea that if he drank it he could live forever, he's one of those dreamers, really into mythology and that"

Fidelio glanced at him sceptical look gracing his features logic burning in his eyes.

"But that's not true right? You don't really live forever right?" his brow furrowed, arms folded tightly.

"Nah, course not, vampires don't even live forever, we may have heightened senses but we're no super humans you know, but we're damn well as close as you can get to them" he replied heartily eyes shining with glee.

Emma smiled at this, and Olivia elbowed her in the ribs and winked grinning like a Cheshire cat, which was rewarded with a harsh blush from Emma.

"Moving on..." Charlie said eyeing the girls.

"Right; so the potty Prof. decides that I'd be perfect to test out his theory and tries to come after me but as you know we vamps aren't that easy to catch and I got away from him but he tracked me down I mean these days all you need is a face right and you can locate people from miles around. So that's what he did, he managed to track me to my hotel and sent these things after me; you saw it right? That shadow creature" he asked.

Lysander nodded, glancing to the others who replied with the nod of their heads.

"Bit hard to miss Tanc, I mean the things are like I dunno, the size of 4 houses combined!" he yelled harshly.

Tancred winced as he yelled, holding his hands up defensively.

"Well it's not my fault that he decided to summon the damn things is it? I had no idea I mean think about how I felt when I walked out on my veranda thing to find 4 of the damn things staring at me in the face; I'll tell you I was a bit more than shocked to sat the _least,_ the maid had a fit, she about had a heart attack when she came in to changed the towels" he explained in a way that screamed 'it was more than scandalous'.

Olivia laughed as he did, clearly finding the whole thing beyond amusing.

"You were attacked by beast from beyond the grave and all you care about is fresh towels?" she laughed now pointing at him like a mad man.

Tancred raised a blond eyebrow at her, arms folding again.

"Well yeah I mean, suppose I have a shower and need to dry off, how do you suppose I do that without towels? Vampires don't come with air con ya know" he told her hotly.

"How do you go for a shower when you're fighting crazy shadow beasts?!" she wailed dramatically flinging her arms into the air to emphasise her point.

"With great difficultly!" he shot back.

"Please can we just continue" Charlie asked but the two did not stop but carried on with their game of who could outsmart the other.

A few minutes passed and Gabriel could no longer take their ever rising voices and decided to put an end to it.

"WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP BEFORE I STRANGLE YOU BOTH WITH CHARLIE'S SHOELACES AND TIE YOU TO A TREE AND BEAT YOU BOTH TO DEATH WITH LAMPPOST'S!" He cried angrily.

The two stopped instantly, freezing as Gabriel's cold voice hit them like a brick wall, they all blinked at him not expecting such a dramatised turn of events to take place.

"Are you okay Gabe?" Emma asked her face reading that of shock, it wasn't often that Gabriel got mad, and it was only in extreme cases that he raised his voice or called out threats. The threats of coarse were empty ones but scary all the same.

Gabriel nodded and took a deep breath before folding his arms and going back to his usual quiet and more relaxed state.

"Okay... Moving on" Fidelio said.

Tancred rolled his eyes and smiled, realising he had missed this all the stupid arguments he had had with Olivia but shook his head once he realised he still had them all the time with her back where he came from.

"Gladly" he answered slowly, before rolling his head back in thought processing what had happened after. "K, well things got a bit messy here and there and there was a lot of blood and that, so I kinda ran away" he told them scowling slightly as he said he had ran away, he clearly had not been happy about that.

Emma frowned.

"You... Ran away?" she said a smile creeping to her faced as he flushed bright red and turned away slightly eyes still showing his previous scowl.

Olivia snickered to herself enjoying his embarrassment.

"Well I had to I was about dead!" Tancred yelped. "I'd never fought them before" he explained defeated. "I had to go to Carlick for help, or rather he came to me, after all he's 'supposed' to be looking after me, as you can see he doesn't do a very good job of it, but he came and found me anyway as I was going back home to patch myself up"

"Wait how can he just find you like that?" Fidelio cut in abruptly frowning at him again.

"Eh, I don't know apparently it has something to do with his tracking ability or something along those lines kind of like a sixth sense, or endowment, I guess you could call it"

"Strange all the same but carry on, again" Charlie rushed.

"So, after I promptly yelled at him and told him that two freaking aliens came and tried to murder me in my sleep and he had the nerve to laugh at me, even though I was bleeding all over him!"

Lysander raised his head at the last part.

"How could you do that if you don't have any blood in you?"

"Of course I have blood in me, after all I drink the damn stuff don't I?" he wailed gaining the unwanted attention of some of the other people in the cafe.

"Quiet down would you, we don't want the whole world knowing that we're currently housing a vampire do we?" Charlie hissed.

"Sorry" Tancred replied holding his hands up as though he was going to jail. "But yeah vampires do have blood inside them and bleed just like humans do, we're more human then you realise actually" he told them pleased with himself for proving a point.

"But anyway back to my story" he continued quickly. "Carlick told me that it was Professor Sanders, and he explained his wacky idea to me, and told me about our blood" his eyes gleamed at this point with what seemed like mischief and caused Olivia to squirm again when he mentioned the blood. "It may not cause you to live forever, but it does have a massive healing ability" he Paused to look up at the others to see if they understood him so far. His answer was a round of confused looks.

"Erm can you explain that a little more?" Fidelio asked.

Tancred sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Okay well, ya see when we get converted the poison that's leaked into ya blood, from the vampires fangs mixes in with your own and that's what converts you, but it also leaves a little behind and so when vampires go out to hunt and drink more blood the blood that was left behind from the poison kind of mingles your DNA into the blood that you drink and makes it your own, so it not only gives you strength and energy but also heals whatever wounds that you receive, that's why when a vampire loses a lot of blood they can't heal themselves as quickly, or in more severe cases at all"

"Woah, that's intense" Charlie said in awe.

"I'll say" Fidelio added as he slipped back into deep thought.

"I guess that's why you were in such a state when we found you in the woods?" Lysander asked.

"Yeah, that really hurt, but anyway, I learnt about him and how to get rid of the shadows that he can call up upon, I decided to stay away from them, and Carlick agreed that'd be best, but that never stopped him from coming after me and after awhile it became a bit of a chore trying to avoid him, but after a year he went really quiet, and so I went to see what he was up to, only to find he had been working on what he liked to call his version of a time machine"

"What! No way them things are only in the movies, you cannot expect me to believe that right?" Charlie yelled in pure disbelief.

"Yeah and I'm talking to a boy who can talk to pictures, a guy who can call upon the dead, an illusionist who like to dye her hair unbelievable colours, a girl who can turn into a bird, and a guy who can feel emotions though clothes, and you won't believe me when I say this guy built a time machine! Wow you have such a one track mind Charlie Bone" Tancred said airily.

Charlie blinked taken off guard for a moment.

"W-well I mean... Erm, well you know this is like a _time machine _Tancred I mean how can one _travel _though _time_?" he asked sceptically.

"Well you never know someone could have it as a endowment"

"Yeah, but how could you _build _one?" he asked smugly knowing he had Tancred there.

"Hell if I know do I look like a genius to you eh? After all how would you explain me _being_ here then if you don't believe me?" This time Tancred smirked knowing that he had Charlie closed in now.

"Well what if you're not him?" he countered.

Tancred sighed.

"You want proof again fine, I'll give you proof; Charlie you have a crush on a girl called Naren I know this cause you told me back at school four weeks ago, when I was younger of coarse, by accident, cause you were muttering about telling her about it" he smirked folding his arm expression clearly saying 'I dare you to deny it'.

Charlie flushed bright magenta and hung his head in embarrassment.

"Yeah you're him alright only he could have heard that and embarrassed me so much" he muttered coldly.

Tancred only laughed, while the others looked on in shock at Charlie.

"I knew it" Fidelio confirmed to himself with a smile, Olivia noticed this was cute and savoured the moment.

Charlie glowed at them and gave a rather snobby look as he held his nose high in the air.

"About this _time machine_ anyway" he pressed not wanting to be in the spotlight anymore.

Tancred smirked knowing he had won.

"Oh, yeah almost forgot"

Charlie glared again knowing the hidden meaning behind those words.

"He thought he could get to me by going back into the past and getting to me that way, maybe catching me just as I was changed and grabbing me while I was weak" he glanced around for a moment. "But he clearly made a mistake and would have gone back to the wrong time, if I hadn't been the one sent back instead, that as you can see was a mistake too, we were fighting and I landed on the machine, after being thrown at it and activated it and got sent back here, after all I had to do something I couldn't have him messing about in the past and getting to me" he laughed.

"But I don't understand how has this affected our Tancred, I mean this is the reason he's missing right?" Gabriel stated.

"Oh yeah, this is the reason, you see the thing is you can't have two of the same person in one time line"

"Can you translate that into idiot please?" Olivia asked pulling a face.

"Of course, I speak fluent idiot you see, just another one of my many talents" he told her winking and smiling merrily to which she responded with a harsh over dramatised glare. "It means that a person from the future or past can't be here at the same time as the person from the present, so if Charlie from the past or future decided to come here to the present the Charlie now would be destroyed because of the stress that causes on reality" he explained as simply as he could.

"_Right_... **Wait**! Hold up, hold up!" Lysander gasped, and held his hands up as though trying to stop traffic. "You mean to tell me that Tancred, my best mate since I can remember, has been **destroyed**! All because _you_, from _the future_ came here by _complete_ **mistake**!!??" he half yelled half whispered, a look of complete despair contorting his face.

Tancred frowned.

"Don't be an idiot, god you sound like her" he stated bluntly to him pointing at Olivia. "That's why we have the mother of all reality, ya know she's a genius, cause when this happens she takes the poor person from the past, present or future, who's about to be destroyed cause of the visiting person, and moves them to where the traveller came from" he paused. "Translated into idiot..." he paused again to glance at Olivia was once again threw him a look of sheer annoyance. "It means Tancred has been placed back where I came from so around now he's probably with the mad old prof, but not to worry I bet he's fine, after all he is me... Minus the cool vampire part and he kinda lacks my knowledge of where he is, I guess I'm lucky I know where I am, oh dear, I bet he's scared to death right now" Tancred said sadly.

"That or he's using ever curse word under the sun and currently looking for someone to punch" Lysander told him bleakly knowing Tancred had probably chosen to follow the latter.

Tancred and others laughed.

"You're probably right there" Emma said smiling slightly.

"One more question though" Fidelio said.

"Go ahead" Tancred said blandly chewing the remainder of his straw, staring idly at the broken glass in front of him, neither of the Onimous's had come to clear it away most likely sensing something serious was going off, they would most likely ask Tancred later to pay for it not that they would know it was him after all Lysander hadn't guessed it was him until he had told him and he was his best friend, he guessed he could get away with saying his was his own cousin of something, yeah that could work.

"Well where did you get the car from?" he asked almost dreading the answer. "After all I doubt that you well, brought it with you"

Tancred smiled mischievously at him his ultramarine eyes swimming with glee.

"Oh _that_" he said innocently as he could, which wasn't hard he was a fairly good actor when he wanted to be. "Well your right I didn't bring it with me that's for sure, mine back home is far flashier than that thing" he said driving the conversation off topic as much as he could.

Lysander saw through it though and sighed, in some ways he would never change, he could still read him like a book that was for sure.

"Tancred _where_ did you get it?" he asked firmly, eyes cold and unwavering.

"Aww, fine" Tancred huffed. "I stole it" he grinned in a sudden mood swing, he looked ever so pleased with himself, smiling as though he had won the lottery or run over Dr. Bloor with a four by four.

"YOU DID WHAT!!" Came a chorus of yells.

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Okay all done with that, I realise myself that this chapter is hard to follow, I myself didn't get half the things I wrote down at the time...

But please R&R, I swear reviews make me less lazy, and I promise the next chapter won't be as confusing.


	6. Chapter 6 Lost In Space

I. AM. SOOO. SORRY. FOR. THE. LATE. UPDATE. Okay I have no reason for it, only sheer laziness and no motivation to continue it... But I'm back writing it now so expect quicker updates.

**DISCLAIMER - I DO NOT OWN CHARLIE BONE OR HIS FREINDS AND IDEAS. PLEASE DO NOT SUE AS I WILL DENNIE OWNERSHIP. **

* * *

Chapter 5 -

Lost In Space:

The school week came as quickly as it always did, it never slowed for anyone really, but even so Emma had to hope right? After all she didn't look forward to having to leave Tancred alone in the house by himself, well there was her aunt but that was one of the reason she didn't want to leave him.

Speaking of which, where was he?

It had been far to quite, which meant he was either up to something or was hunting, she doubted the latter as he only went at night for that, something about the sun making him weak if she remembered rightly.

"Tancred?" she asked tentatively glancing round from her wooden desk where she had been finishing off some important art homework that was due in the following morning.

No answer, not that she had been expecting one.

"Great..." she sighed letting her head hit the desk tiredly. She was not looking forward to the prospect of going to look for him at such an hour, but, just as she was about to get up and carry out her task of going find him, a cry if terror filled the room.

"EMMA!" the shrill cried and a small fairy sized girl came flying though the doorway wailing like a 3 year old who had just got their lollypop snatched from them. Pitiful really...

The fairy in question was none other than Taylor of course, she had become a well know presents to Emma now and really was a pain sometimes, but if she was crying this could only mean...

"Hehe, Taylor your just a wimp, it's only a rat, come on I thought you liked animals?" said a voice coming from the hall.

Yay he was here, great...

Another small fairy sized creature came floating into her room once again disturbing the peace as he had last time, her and Tancred had been having a decent conversation about his life back where he came from, although he refused to tell her anything about her future life, even so they were getting along. But no, he had had to come flying in whining like a 2 year that Tancred was ignoring him and that he was bored.

It's name...

"RAVEN!"

Yep there we go.

"Yeah, I like animals, but not when they are trying to pounce on me and eat me!" Taylor wailed hiding behind an overly annoyed Emma.

Now Raven in his own right was naturally like this, apparently anyway, that was what Tancred had said to her. The gothic styled half-cat, half-miniature human was trouble prone and had a fetish with pulling pranks on Taylor, and generally anyone who was around at the time.

He donned, a wild messy black hairstyle, and black jeans, with an arrangement of gothic belts loosely hanging from the buckles, a black tee-shirt, and one of those studded chokers round his neck, but the best part was his ears, tail and cat like eyes. From his messy hair you could see a pair of dark navy blue ears that stood out from his mess of hair due to the change in colour, and from where Emma was standing she could just make out his tail swaying in joy behind him. He also came with a love of fish and balls of string that Emma never seemed to run out of due to the fact she could indeed sew.

"Yeah well, how did I know that it was going to do that, im not you know, what do they call it, psychotic!" he yelled to her.

"Would you two stop it, and Raven its Psychic" Emma scolded while turning her head away from her desk to watch them, making sure they didn't knock anything important over, Raven had already done that twice and now she was saving up for two new china ballerina figurines that her auntie had brought her for her newly decorated room.

Although Tancred said he would pay for any damages that his Sprite Guardians caused, it didn't shift her constant worry whenever they were in the room. If anything it made her worry more since Tancred didn't seems fazed about them destroying anything, there was also the fact that she knew that he didn't have any money any the moment which made her wonder where on earth he would get such fundings from. Ever since he had admitted to stealing a car she had been slightly more weary to where he got things from and had given him a through talking to about just waltzing into places and taking what he liked, though he had promised it was a one off since he couldn't live without suitable transport. She had however pointed out that there were buses, after that he hadn't spoken to her for the remaining of the evening saying that-that type of comment didn't even deserve an answer.

Speaking of which she had still got round to finding out where Tancred had slunk off to. Swinging back round to face the terrible twosome she saw them sitting on her desk surveying her drawing with curious eyes. This only served to make her feel self conscious about what she had drawn not that their opinion should have mattered. Although she remembered Tancred being _exceedingly_ capable artist, well where sketching was concerned anyway, it was about the only thing he could do. After all whenever he tried putting paint to one of his rough drawings he always ended up smudging and letting the paint get to watery and dripping down the canvas. Needless to say he didn't bother again, and as for sculpting, well let's not even go there, Lysander, after what had happened the first time Tancred had been allowed to roam around the sculpting room, had taken over their projects for the topic.

Getting back to the matter on hand the little pests had most probably seen better than her rough drawings now littered about her desk. This train of thought only made her more nervous and feel even worse about what she had drawn, being as she could already visualize the look of amusement on Raven's face as he made fun of her work.

"What?" she asked slightly nervous still being able to pick up on their new found interest for what she had drawn, sneaky things she never knew if they were up to something or not.

"Nothing~" they both chirped in sync with matching smiles and grins to boot.

"Where's Tancred by the way?" she asked hotly trying to set her mind at ease, telling herself that they did belong to Tancred and so they could be excused for seeming to be crazy.

At the sudden question they looked worried, and Taylor slightly grim, as they turned to face each other, finding that neither knew they looked back to her and frowned shrugging lightly and then moving across the room to her. Taylor's head hung and she twiddled with her fingers, face creasing into a picture of worry.

"Well he said he was going out somewhere earlier" Taylor said eyes locking with anything but hers, evening trying to make the floor appear vaguely appeasing.

"And he said we couldn't come..." Raven continued, arms crossed, eyes narrowed also looking away from her. If anything he seemed mildly miffed by the fact that Tancred had run off and maybe even annoyed that he had been left behind as he leaned back in midair as though trying to make himself comfy.

"That we had to stay here to look after you..." Taylor finishing Raven's abruptly cut of sentence while biting her lip nervously.

Emma sighed, knowing automatically that they knew more than they were letting on, she could now only worry and hope to whatever God would listen to her that he was getting himself into trouble. That damn boy knew that he had to come home early tonight, because they had to discuss what they were going to do while Emma and the others were at school the following week. He could not stay here at the bookshop, it just _wasn't_ an option, and her aunt was _not_ that stupid she was going to figure out that _something_ was amiss eventually. The other day had been a close call when Tancred had slipped down into the kitchen to fetch Taylor a snack, she was very fussy and surprisingly, for saying she was half fox, would _not _eat meat. Her aunt had been down and Tancred tried to be clever and shoot, fast as lightning, through the kitchen, open the cupboard door and grab a fist full of iceberg lettuce. However being as he was going so fast he forgot that that kind of movement caused a slight breeze of air, and as he darted _right passed_ her aunt she _felt _said breeze and immediately stopped what she was doing and looked to Emma.

Now Emma was _known_ for her truthfulness and truthful behaviour and found it _extremely_ difficult to lie on the spot and even harder to lie on the spot to her auntie. The worst thing was Tancred all but stood there at the door the led to the stairs behind them _watching_ her struggle to come up with a suitable, not to mention, _believable_ lie.

Just remembering it made her angry and as she sat there and fumed, what should happen, the current cause of her frustration flung the door right open and breezed through and who was it? None other than the boy that had been running through her mind all that night.

Tancred Torsson, in all his current modern glory, though it was an improvement from his original gothic clad. When he had arrived he had been dressed in black clothes and a long black coat that had reached his knees, and had had an arrangement of big buckled belts running down it, some buckled and others loosely hanging open flapping about where they pleased. His excuse was that he was less noticeable in black clothes, and then he wouldn't be spotted when hunting. Emma had obviously laughed at this and immediately told him that he couldn't walk around like that in broad daylight, unless he wanted people to look at him funny that was, something that Tancred said he didn't mind at all. She wanted to straggle him at that...

It had been a struggle but eventually he had given in and made a quick dash to the local clothes store and picked out a few pairs of dark jeans, light t-shirts and thin jackets. Basically pretty close to what his younger counterpart had wore before his disappearance intothe future. Although this time when he had gone shopping he had paid for it, or at least that had been what she had been told when he had arrived home, arms full of shopping and bags full of new clothes ready for wearing.

She gave him a quick glance over of him standing in the doorway, he was drenched, and dripping with water which was beginning to seep into the beige carpet in the hallway creating small puddles with the sudden build up. He had a smile on his face as he watched her survey him with a look of disapproval, most likely at the fact that he was literally saturated with water, and was making watery trails throughout the house. Something she would get blamed for, since her aunt had no idea that he was currently residing in the house.

Beside him floated another small being watching them all intently with a harsh calculating stare upon his sour face. His skin was snowy pale and his eyes a smouldering golden eyes and jet black hair that, unlike Ravens was not spiky and wild, in fact his was combed down nicely, with two long bangs either side of his head that fell to his chin and hung slightly in his eyes. He was dressed in smart black trousers, with a sliver chain hanging from one side, and a white crisp dress shirt. Also unlike both Taylor and Raven he did not have a tail, instead he donned two black bat like wings from his back and a pair of black bat like ears sprouted from his head, giving him a more fierce and demonic aura.

To put it lightly Emma suddenly felt very uncomfortable, and the two other Guardians had abruptly fallen very unnaturally quiet. Tancred of course was unfazed and completely oblivious to it all since he came walking in very casually, the latest addition to the team following his very closely not even introducing himself to Emma, he was acting as though she didn't even exist.

Taylor must have noted his rudeness as she flew forward and pushed a lock of blonde hair from Emma's ear and leaned down to whisper lowly in her ear.

"That's Corbin" she started a hint of uneasiness wavering in her tone, she gave a quick look round specifically in his direction, and then continued. "He doesn't talk much, only to Tancred"

Emma gave a mute nod and then turned to look back over at the pair, who were quietly talking in the corner of the room, while Tancred took off his shoes and top lazily, placing them in a neat pile in the corner, ready to be taken down stairs and put into the wash. Emma had already thought ahead and quickly picked them up and chucked them into her laundry basket. He looked up at her for a moment before smiling at her before passing her his jacket, and moving to leave to go into the bathroom; to most likely to get changed into his nightwear.

"By the way" Tancred said as he stood in the doorway, his hair still dripping wet with the rain water hanging in his eyes giving him a more alluring-no bad thoughts Emma- a more cliché model look, he waved his hand toward Corbin now floating at his side. "This is Corbin, he's goanna be staying with us as well" he added a huge celebrity smile, and then nudged Corbin lightly making him stubble in midair gaining Tancred a glare. "Go on say hello you rude little thing"

Corbin frowned at Tancred and then floated though the door, completely ignoring what Tancred had said. Tancred said nothing on the matter, yet he sighed chuckled slightly and followed him out giving a soft apology in Emma's direction.

Raven however glared and gave a short huff before floating out of the open window angrily, disappearing into the night.

Emma blinked stupidly and turned to Taylor with a frown clearly asking for some kind of explanation, after all Raven didn't normally act like _that_.

"What's wrong with Raven?"

Taylor mimicked Emma's earlier frown and watched him go with a sad look in her eyes showing her disappointment.

"He and Corbin don't get on at all" she said stated. "They don't share the same views on things concerning Tancred"

"What do you mean?" she asked already knowing that they clearly didn't get on if they were acting this way. Plus Raven's hasty exit had just proved it.

"Well Raven thinks that we should follow what Tancred says to us" Taylor whispered her voice expressing her sadness, and Emma couldn't help but feel for her stuck in the middle of the fight.

"But Corbin doesn't think that way, and he's stubborn. He doesn't always follow what Tancred says and he thinks he's too brash and shouldn't jump into things so much, after all that's what got us here in the first place" she finished while setting herself on Emma's pillow with another frustrated sigh.

Emma gazed out of the window her eyebrows sinking in worry for the small cat like creature, silently hoping he would be okay she turned back to Taylor and smiled.

"I see... Well what do you think?" she asked setting herself back into her desk chair.

Taylor glanced up quickly with shocked eyes and blinked.

"What do you mean?" she asked voice slightly higher and more pronounced.

"Well surely you have an opinion on this too right?" another question followed up with a warm and friendly smile.

Taylor line of vision swept to the floor again and she twitched uncomfortably as she tried to make herself look smaller under Emma's gaze.

"Well no one's every asked me that before..." she trailed off meekly. "But I just want to make Tancred happy so I tend to just follow whatever he says or asks, because he's always so nice about it. But that's our job, I just wish Corbin wouldn't act so against it and would try to get on with Raven a little more" he ear dropped slightly and she bit her lip nervously.

For a moment there was silence before the door swung open and Tancred stepped casually in wearing that same smile and happy aura, although it seemed to happy, like he was somehow immensely proud of himself for some reason.

He then stopped and turned to Emma with a frown.

"What?" Emma asked blinking at him owlishly.

"Where's Raven?" he enquire giving a quick glance at Taylor meaning to include her too.

"He left after you went to the bathroom, I don't know where is" she told him as she began to clear away her drawing equipment into her bag and drag out her suitcase from under the bed.

"Ah, I see" he stated while grinning again. "I suppose I'm going to have to have words when he gets back from wherever he is"

"That would be a good idea" she told him while packing in her apron just in case she had to do any clay work that week.

He smirked at her and then settled himself on her bed observing the ceiling meekly.

"By the way..." Emma started as he sat back up to give her his full attention.

"Yes"

She then turned sharply to him pointing her finger at him accusingly.

"What are you going to do while I'm away at school?"

A smile. That's all she got to the questioned followed by a. "Don't worry I have something in mind".

She stood there numbly holding one of her freshly pressed white blouses watching him as he casually laid back down smile still in place humming to himself merrily. Corbin sitting cross-legged floating in midair with a smirk on his face clearing knowing the reason for Tancred's easy going attitude.

"Well you better move your car mister cause my aunties beginning to wonder whose it is" she snapped.

"Stop panicking I'll move it tomor-"

And just like that he was gone, quick as a flash he darted out of the open window and was away. She rushed to the window and flinging herself out, stretching as far as she could to get a better view and try and stop him. However as she did her door opened again and she turned to see her aunt standing there already dressed for bed rubbing her eyes tiredly holding a tray in her hand with two mugs on it.

"Emma I came to say goodnight" she explained yawning and quickly placing a hand to her mouth out of politeness. "And I brought you a hot chocolate up seeing as I made one myself" she told her coming into the room and setting the tray down on her desk and moving to the window where Emma was stood.

"Thank you auntie" she said with a smile.

"It's a lovely night isn't it?"

"Yeah it is..."

"Shame about that car, I wish whoever owned it would move it, it's blocking the road" her aunt said while wrinkling her nose at it.

Emma smiled knowing that where Tancred was he could hear and was most likely cussing her right now for saying that. He was very proud of his stolen car and had already boasted about it to Charlie who had been annoyed with him for stealing it.

Her aunt then shifted her eyes to Emma sadly and Emma already knew what was coming and mentally prepared herself for the onslaught of questions to come.

"How are you holding up?" she asked her eyes shining with worry and concern, and Emma couldn't find it in herself to become annoyed with her, even when she asked her at least 3 times a days, except for when she was at school. She really did care, Emma knew she did and that's why she couldn't be mad at her for asking.

"I'm fine..."

"It will be 2 weeks tomorrow won't it?" she said her yes now staring out of the window, her glassy eyes clouded with sadness, adding to her already pretty face.

Emma felt her stomach constrict and a sharp pain stab through her. No that was wrong...

"3 weeks" she corrected sadly.

3 weeks...

Her aunt made a shocked almost chocked noise and shook her head.

"3 weeks!" she laughed but it wasn't her usual cheery laugh that made Paton's eyes sparkled with happiness no, this laugh was dull and hollow a complete devoid of her normal glossy cheer. "Oh how time flies" she continued with a sigh, her dull tone carrying on with her as she re-tied her tie around her nightgown.

Emma made a noise of agreement at the back of her throat and turned away back to her suitcase and continued to pack in her clothes for the week trying to block out the sudden damp mood she was in.

"Do you need any help at all?" she asked Emma setting her mug down on the windowsill glancing briefly at the open window as she did.

Emma looked at her bewildered for a moment before crumbling into a smile and shaking her head adamantly. Her aunt nodded and gave her a pretty smile before leaving for the door whispering a soft goodnight and wishing her a good day for the following morning, being as she usually woke up before her and closed the door quietly. This left Emma in utter silence for awhile, not even Tancred returned, which puzzled her.

However a moment later he appeared in all his grand head down glory...

Wait... What?

She gave a him a sad look as she watched him jump back through the window, hair covering his eyes, making a shadow fall across his face. He didn't say anything not a word to her; he simply walked as though in a trace over to her bed and sat down. His elbows resting on his knees as his interwoven fingers took the weight of his chin, eyes still giving the floor evils, most likely anyway. He stayed like that for a while and Emma decided it best to go back to her packing and allow him to brood; after all she had no idea what was wrong.

After a while he did speak; but when he did his voice was low and held none of his regular: sarcasm, smugness, happiness or undertone of mischief.

"Is... Is everyone like that?" he asked finally raising his head to look at her, she almost started crying when she saw his eyes.

Now Emma had never, ever, _ever_, seen Tancred Torrson cry. It just didn't happen. She probably never would, but this was probably going to be the close she did see to it. The weren't wide like when Olivia's were when she was close to crying, and his face wasn't crinkled up like when she had seen Gabriel close to crying when he had found out all of his precious gerbils had gone missing, and his lips certainly weren't quivering a mile a minute nose streaming with snot like Billy Raven's when he had started bawling after all of the Bloor incidents.

No, his face was still intact it was his eyes that gave it away, the sudden deep, blue, _endless_ sorrow that laid there gave it all away.

"W-what do you mean?" her voice broke as she fought to tear her eyes away from his, but he had them locked with his own unwilling to let them break away.

"When they talk about my younger self being missing... Do they all look that sad" he continued seemingly reluctant to expand on what he was thinking.

Emma managed to tear her eyes away finally to think about what he has asked; her fingers gripped the clothing in her hands as her eyes shook with a sudden sadness.

They were... all of them Lysander and Tancred's parents mostly.

They had been down to see them all at one point, asking questions. What had he been doing the day before he went missing? Who had he been talking to? Was he acting odd? Had he said anything? All the questions you would ask if someone suddenly upped and left.

Heck even Mr. and Mrs. Onimous had taken to avoiding the subject, and when someone did come close to mentioning it would look away sadly.

Still looking down at her recently finished dress she had made for Olivia for her upcoming play she let her eyes well up slightly.

"Yeah... They do" she whispered still not looking at, even when she heard him shift for her bed.

There was another silence, it almost took her completely over and she nearly let her tears fall.

"I... I think I should visit my parents" he told her voice strained and slightly uncertain as though asking her for her thoughts on the idea. "Not like talk to them obviously. Just like check up on them..." the uncertainly was still there.

She twisted round to look at him and saw him holding her now closed curtains apart slightly look out with that same lost look in his eyes. As she continued to watch him she could suddenly not see him standing there, instead was _her_ Tancred, the same lost expression on his face. He then turned to look at her and smiled charmingly.

"Tancred..." she breathed.

And then he was gone, just like that. Her illusion shattered around her, and that other Tancred was back but now he was looking at her confusion written across those gorgeous features.

"I-I think that's a great idea" she smiled at him letting him know everything was okay, and he smiled back knowing she was right.

He went and lay back down on the bed and she continued packing.

"Do you want any help?"

"Yeah..."


End file.
